The building at Fifth and Union streets, once known as "Apartments of Distinction," has been owned by Galvan for more than a decade and vacant for even longer. It has a long and distinguished history. Constructed around 1864, it is one of the earliest apartment buildings in the country. This image of the building is from 1893.
In 2013, the chimneys on the building, which had been lost to time, were re-created, a new slate mansard roof was installed, and the upper windows were restored. After that work was done, another seven years passed before there was any further word of what was planned for the building.
In October 2020, Walter Chatham, representing the Galvan Foundation, appeared before the Historic Preservation Commission with a proposal to complete the exterior restoration of the building. The proposal involved replacing the temporary replacement windows with permanent replacement windows, removing the fire escape on the South Fifth Street side of the building, adding shutters to the Union Street side, and re-creating a storefront at the corner of the building. Chatham told the HPC that replacing the windows was a necessary preliminary step to beginning the interior renovation, which he said involved creating one bedroom and studio apartments.
The HPC granted a certificate of appropriateness for all but the storefront. The design proposed for the storefront was considered inappropriate because it disrupted the verticality of the building. But, alas, a year and five months later, none of the work proposed has been completed. The fire escape is still there, and the windows are the same as they were in 2013. The picture below was taken this afternoon.
Curious minds want to know what the building's future may be.
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501 Union has recently had a massive re-building of the basement and foundations in preparation for its restoration into an apartment building. New Steel columns will replace the original wood ones which had been removed or altered throughout this fine old building.
ReplyDeletePlans have been filed with the Code Officer that show 9 apartments above an open plan Ground Floor that will hopefully be a small legally permitted commercial space in the future; since the building originally had this.